On Tuesday, August 2, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) opened a new packaging customization facility at its plant in Auburn, ME. In partnership with the Maine Bureau of Rehabilitation Services and the Department of Health & Human Services, this new FlexiCenter facility will offer local employment opportunities for individuals with physical and developmental challenges, as well as disabled veterans. These new hires will account for at least 30 percent of the facility’s workforce, and once hiring is complete, the FlexiCenter will house a total of 60 local employees.
“The FlexiCenter operation demonstrates P&G’s commitment to Diversity & Inclusion showcasing the high level of Excellence at the Auburn Site,” said Site Leader Felica Coney. “The FlexiCenter is an example of Business Collaborating with State Government and Private Agencies to deliver an incredible opportunity for an amazing group of people.”
The FlexiCenter is a strong affirmation of P&G’s commitment to diversity, bringing new jobs and opportunities, leveraging a broad range of diversity in an inclusive environment where people with and without disabilities work side by side, earning the same pay, receiving the same benefits and held to the same productivity and workplace standards. Continuing to broaden P&G’s workforce by employing people with physical and developmental challenges is not only the right thing to do, but it also makes good business sense and has benefits which will reverberate across the company and community.

“Blacks and Latinos are not fully sharing in the promise of American freedom.”

That from a speech this morning by New York City Major Michael Bloomberg, who announced a $127 million, three-year plan to coordinate city agencies and efforts, with a goal of reducing disparities between young black and Latino men and the rest of the population.

Among much else, the city would create job recruitment centers in public housing projects, place new probation centers in high-risk areas to enable young men to stay closer to home, and, for the first time, the Department of Education would make the success of blacks and Latinos a part of school progress reports.

Diversity has become a watchword in society. The same is true in the workplace, says Mona Vaccarella, vice president of human resources for the Majestic Star Casinos & Hotel in Buffington Harbor.
“Workplace diversity refers to the differences that people bring to their jobs on the basis of gender, age, race, ethnicity or professional background. Those differences have a direct and/or indirect influence on the work performed,” says Vaccarella, who gave a presentation during a recent Diversity Workshop sponsored by The Times Media Group.

There were plenty of hard-luck stories at the Diversity Job Fair among the roughly 4,500 people strolling the booths.

Some of the attendees at Wednesday’s event at Century II are out of work, while others were just looking for more hours and more money.

It’s been an unusually difficult downturn for job seekers, with an average of 39 weeks for the unemployed to find new work.

Jayme Thompson of Wichita is 20 and has worked part-time at a large retailer for two years. After having her hours cut, she was at the job fair looking for better-paying work, or maybe a second job.

She is having trouble paying the rent and having enough left over for food and other basics. She wants to go to college to better her prospects, but she doesn’t have the money for tuition or even to pay the car insurance needed to commute to school.